'We thought we did enough to create a lead' - Marcelo Bielsa says Wolves fed on Leeds' inability to take chances

Leeds United returned from the international break like they'd never been away, starting the Elland Road clash impressively and asserting real dominance over their visitors.

Although they created plenty of chances, restricted Wolves to threatening on rare breaks and penned Nuno Espirito Santo's men deep into their own half, they failed to trouble Rui Patricio in the Wolves goal and went in at the break goalless.

The second half was completely different. Wolves contained so much more threat than they had previously and Bielsa suggested they had taken confidence from Leeds' struggles in front of goal.

"Given how the game went we thought we did enough to create a lead," he said.

"When an offensive team doesn't take their chances, the opponent reads this and starts to grow in confidence.

"The game was very physical there were many interruptions and it was difficult to find a continuity.

"We lost some offensive capacity."

And as Leeds failed to build on their first half momentum, Wolves took their chances. The first, a smart Romain Saiss finish, was chalked off by a VAR check due to a marginal offside call on Daniel Podence.

But when Raul Jimenez escaped Pascal Struijk and fired home, via a deflection, there was nothing anyone could do to save the Whites.

Struijk was a late addition to the line-up after captain Liam Cooper pulled up in the warm up. The centre-half had been an injury doubt thanks to a groin issue he picked up while on international duty with Scotland but was deemed fit to play.

However towards the end of the warm-up he began to struggle with the injury and was pulled from the starting line-up.

Bielsa was unable to offer any insight into how bad the problem is or if it will rule the skipper out of Friday's clash with Aston Villa.

"I have not received any information on Liam Cooper's injury yet," he said.

The good news for Leeds was that Pablo Hernandez has now recovered from injury and came off the bench to play a part in the game. And deadline day signing Raphinha was given a debut late on, looking quick and lively. The winger linked up well with Rodrigo and created a goalscoring opportunity with his first touch.